MAY / JUNE 2003

Sakimoto Mentors Winning Science Fair Project on “Water on Mars” Erin Frey 
Wins 5 Awards at 2003 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Erin Frey, a junior at South River High School, took home 5 awards from the 
2003 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held May 12-16 
in Cleveland, Ohio, for her project, “Water on Mars: Where was it? Where is 
it now?” She was one of the 4th place Grand Award winners in her category 
(Earth and Space Science) and also received special awards from NASA, 
Caltech/JPL, the Association of Women Geoscientists, and Eastman Kodak. Frey 
was one of five students attending ISEF this year from Anne Arundel County, 
which sent two individual and one team project to the fair. The team project 
was also a big winner, taking 1st place in category (Team Computer Science) 
and also best Team Project in Show.

In her project, Frey compared the depths at which gullies form in both “wet” 
and “dry” locations on Mars, as derived from the near surface hydrogen 
abundance measured by the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) on the Odyssey 
spacecraft. She found that gullies in “wet” areas form very close to the 
surface, but in progressively drier areas they tend to form over a greater 
range of depths and on average at progressively greater depths.

Dr. Susan Sakimoto (UMBC) was the mentor for the project. At right, she and 
Erin discuss the gullies on Mars that were studied by Frey.

Contact: Susan Sakimoto, GSFC Code 921, sakimoto@core2.gsfc.nasa.gov